Born and raised in the land of bread, cabbage, and beer (Germany), Annabell made a life-altering decision at a young age: she was going to become an "animal explorer," all thanks to binge-watching Steve Irwin documentaries. After making this grand proclamation, she had to wait for a decade before finally transforming from her juvenile into her subadult stage and beginning her bachelor's degree in Environmental Biology at the Hochschule Bremen. With her bachelor's in the bag, she embarked on a journey to complete her master's in Aquatic Tropical Ecology at the University of Bremen. Her research was all about the thrilling world of the pulsating soft coral Xenia umbellata, specifically, how it reacts to both phosphate enrichment and the cozy warmth of climate change. Then, Annabell became a research assistant in the Reef System WG at the ZMT in Bremen, where she was part of a project called "Frozen in Time." This wasn't some cryogenic experiment, but a study comparing fossilized and modern coral reefs in Curaçao. Fast forward to 2023, and Annabell has begun her PhD (co-supervised by Prof. Culum Brown, Prof. Jane Williamson, and Dr. Sally Keith) in the Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes lab. Why? Because she has this oddly amusing fixation on coral reef fish, particularly the perpetually grumpy damselfish. Her research focuses on how the loss of coral reef complexity and warming will mess with the cognitive skills of coral-associated damselfish. In particular, Annabell will look at spatial learning, inhibitory control, reversal learning, and - to add another layer of complexity (pun intended) - personality.

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